Concision Course 101: Why Law Students Should Embrace WordRake!

Great lawyers are master writers and communicators. Lawyers must translate thoughts and opinions into clear and precise English. Legal writing is a technical type of writing lawyers and others use to express legal analysis and legal rights and duties. Much of a lawyer’s role is writing legal documents, responses, briefs, letters and emails.

First-year law students are often required to take a legal research and writing class. This style of legal writing is much different from undergrad English and writing courses. Colorful language and expansive vocabulary are rewarded at the undergraduate level. While legal writing professors expect students to be as concise as possible and get straight to the point. One online tool may prove useful for law students to achieve clearer and more concise writing.

Wordrake is a proofreading software editor which tightens, tones, and clarifies your writing. Wordrake suggests edits to remove clutter and improve unclear phrasing, like a live editor. Wordrake is not a spelling or grammar checker. The proofreading platform integrates with Microsoft Word and Outlook.

After installing the program in Word, you can select the text you want to edit, then use the WordRake add in. The program performs track changes to suggest edits, which you can accept or reject.

Lawyer and author, Gary Kinder founded the Seattle-based company in 2011. Gary is also the author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea. Wordrake is $99 for a one-year subscription. Students can take advantage of the 7-day free trial to test out the platform.

Wordrake is not a replacement for traditional editing. But can serve as an extra layer of review before submitting to your legal writing professor. WordRake is used in over 7000 law firms and by the City of Seattle in several municipal departments. Wordrake has helped lawyers around the nation achieve clearer writing. Thus, Wordrake can prove beneficial to law students as well. Providing students the confidence to achieve clearer and more concise writing.

About the Author

Miguel Willis is a second year law student at Seattle University School of Law. Miguel founded and organized the first Social Justice Hackathon in Seattle, WA, bringing together law students, lawyers, non-profit organizations, and software developers to crank out apps and programs that help increase access to legal services.

About this Blog

The Innovative Law Student (ILS) blog covers all aspects of innovations in the legal industry and legal education, topics ranging from tech justice to virtual reality, in thought-provoking and insightful posts catered for a law student audience. The ILS blog is a group forum to which many ILS team members contribute. Outside contributions are welcome. The blog is edited by Miguel Willis.